Introduction

This introduction outlines an Oxford pilot study that explored how Generation Z imagines religion and spirituality through story. Based on 131 story-completion submissions written by young adults worldwide, each featuring “Jesse” and an online exemplar, it introduces Exemplarist Narrative Analysis—a novel qualitative method (inspired by Linda Zagzebski&s;s moral exemplarism) that examines how exemplars shape meaning across the cosmic, self, and moral dimensions of life. The introduction sets out the book&s;s three research questions—who Gen Zers admire, what these choices reveal about their understandings of religion and spirituality, and how such insights might extend exemplarist theory. It also previews the five narrative-types that structure the chapters ahead.